


The One who Ran Away

by cipherpolice



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Community: pacificrimkink, Consensual Sex, Drinking & Talking, F/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-10
Updated: 2013-08-10
Packaged: 2017-12-23 01:41:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/920496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cipherpolice/pseuds/cipherpolice
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Let me clarify,” Raleigh interrupted, indignant. “It’s not that I don’t like her.” If anything, his problem was just the opposite.</p>
<p>Across from him in a booth, tucked into the corner of a noisy, seedy bar in Kowloon, Tendo took an appreciative draught of his beer. He studied the bottom of the green glass bottle briefly before he replied. “What’s the problem then, Becket boy? She pins you to the wall and makes out with you. Uninvited. That’s hot, brotha. Some guys would kill for that kinda action.”</p>
<p>Raleigh put his face in his hands, massaging the bridge of his nose as he willed himself not to relive the incident.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The One who Ran Away

**Author's Note:**

> For the LJ Pacific Rim Kink meme.
> 
> Prompt: http://pacificrimkink.livejournal.com/350.html?thread=1217886#t1217886
> 
> "Post aftermath fic, with Mako coming on to a reluctant Ralrigh who feels that he's not good enough for her. He's older than her, he's covered in scars and has a bad arm, he's had a High-School education to her genius Engineering and Jaeger Tech degrees, and sometimes he still feels like the failure who let his brother die. 
> 
> Mako disagrees with his opinion and tells him, and then SHOWS him, that she thinks he's more than worth it. Hopefully with sex."

“Let me clarify,” Raleigh interrupted, indignant. “It’s not that I don’t _like_ her.” If anything, his problem was just the opposite.

Across from him in a booth, tucked into the corner of a noisy, seedy bar in Kowloon, Tendo took an appreciative draught of his beer. He studied the bottom of the green glass bottle briefly before he replied. “What’s the problem then, Becket boy? She pins you to the wall and makes out with you. Uninvited. That’s _hot_ , brotha. Some guys would kill for that kinda action.”

Raleigh put his face in his hands, massaging the bridge of his nose as he willed himself not to relive the incident.

 

  
In the four months since the Breach was closed, humanity’s ability to adapt was on full display. Within a couple of weeks, most of the mechanics and other members of the Jaeger support teams had left the Shatterdome, filtering through its walls like a fistful of sand. They became car mechanics, husbands, wives, and brothers once more, leaving behind their time at the Shatterdome with a speed Raleigh wouldn’t believe if he hadn’t done it himself 5 years earlier. He and Mako, however, remained. Important but nonessential. Mako’s ever-present stack of blueprints and paperwork suddenly meaningless, with Gipsy Danger on the other side of the Breach in pieces.

They’d spent nearly all their time together after coming back from the Breach. It was easy to. Herc, the only other soul who could possibly understand their situation, the emptiness you felt without the Drift, threw himself into transitioning the PPDC into its new mantle: the Interstellar Research and Defense Corps. Newt and Hermann, for now, formed the core of this new organization, which focused less on the development of Jaeger tech, and more on research into the Kaiju, the Breach, and the possibility of interstellar travel. Humanity’s first brush with sentient life in the universe had made it wary. No longer were romantic stories told of alien abductions and extraterrestrials riding bicycles in the sky. Now, when people spoke of aliens, it was in relation to the large-scale interstellar weapons humanity was building, or the efforts to adapt Kaiju cellular memory abilities for human applications, or making the Drift more stable and usable for a greater number of applications. Raleigh knew that Herc made himself scarce so he didn’t have to remember that while Raleigh and Mako came back, Stacker and Chuck didn’t. So, the two of them found themselves roaming the Jaeger hangars alone, fighting in the Kwoon for fun, telling each other life stories they already knew by heart.

Mako, for her part, did not grieve Stacker the way Raleigh thought she would. For the first few weeks, she cried in her sleep, he knew that much – overwhelming sadness and loss rippling through the ghost drift they shared in the immediate weeks after – but one day, abruptly, she decided she was done grieving. Her emotions turned sharply, precisely, like everything she did, and it was about then that things started... happening.

Happening wasn’t quite the right word, Raleigh mused. _Happened to him_ , or _was subjected to_ , or _experienced_ would be more appropriate. Raleigh wasn’t a submissive man, nor did he find Mako unattractive. But he did nothing to invite Mako’s advances, that he could recall, nor did he encourage her in any way to continue once she’d started.

He didn’t do anything to stop them, either, until today.

The incident Tendo was referring to– Raleigh was already too far down this train of thought, he realized, to stop reliving the moment– happened earlier that day, leading Raleigh to pull his old comrade-in-arms away from the work of repairing Crimson Typhoon for a spot of advice. Hence, the bar; strategically located on the other side of town from the Shatterdome. No way Mako would walk in on them here.

He’d been walking back to his room, after running a lap around the Shatterdome’s tarmac. Raleigh liked the silence of it, free of helicopters and cars now, liked the sheer drop into the tumult of the bay. When he didn’t have anything to do, and wasn’t with Mako, he’d run laps around the tarmac, looking across the sea; wondering what the weather was like in Alaska.

As he rounded the corner and walked to the door of his room, Mako emerged from hers. She quickly walked in his direction, stopping only a few centimetres from his face. Raleigh backed up against the wall instinctively, not wanting to invade anyone’s personal space (whether he’d initiated the invasion or not was besides the point).

She looked up at him with dark eyes, as she stepped forward. “You’re sweating,” she said, “Did you go for a run?”

He stared down at her, and gulped quietly. She was wearing one of the black, standard issue muscle shirts, ones that clung tightly to her frame and didn’t shift unexpectedly when she exercised. Perfect, modest, military. What she didn’t see was the view from above. As Raleigh looked down at her, the shirt revealed the tantalizing curve of her breasts, the hollow of her sternum.

“Y-yeah.” He choked out, bringing his eyes upwards slightly to meet hers, hoping she didn’t notice him staring. “Around the tarmac outside. Wanted a bit of fresh air.”

He’d had no such luck. She’d followed the path of his eyes as it moved upwards from her breasts to her face. A smile danced on her lips, red and full. _Goddamnit, Raleigh Becket._ Raleigh grumbled to himself. _Get your mind out of the gutter._ It was hard to do so when he knew exactly what was coming next, though.

She pressed her forearms against his shoulders, effectively pinning him to his door. Her torso pressed against his abs, and he let out a slow, shaky breath, summoning all his self control. Mako stood up on her toes, and lifted her lips to his. Reluctantly, he opened his mouth and let her tongue in as she wound her arms around his neck, winding her fingers through his hair. _Get yourself under control_ , some distant corner of himself chided, but his heart and his body were relentless. He relaxed against the wall and leaned into the kiss, one of his hands coming to rest on her lower back.

Mako took this as an invitation. She stepped into him, forcing his legs apart with her knee, hands shifting to his chest where she bunched his shirt up in desperate fists. Her kisses became rough, quick, messy, infused with the kind of relentless impatience that turned a man on. As he felt himself go hard, he panicked. Raleigh grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her away. For a moment, they both stood there, outside his door, gasping for breath.

“Why did you stop?” Mako demanded, confused. “I thought you...”

“Mako, it’s not that I–” Raleigh put his hands to his face, massaging his temples. He couldn’t do this. Not to her.

It’s not that he didn’t like her. After the Drift, there could be no other, not ever. Both of them had realized this fairly quickly, and needed no discussion. It wasn’t an accident that left them spending the better part of four months together after the Breach’s closure, there simply wasn’t any way around it. He always wanted to know where she was, what she was doing, if she was feeling sad or tired or jubilant. So he more or less followed her around, quietly, always finding something to do in the same room she was in. For her part, Mako always seemed to be waiting for him when he’d come back from a run, or after a night in the pubs with the scientists or Tendo. And after they were done their tasks, they’d find a quiet catwalk in the old Jaeger bays, and sit, spending time in each others’ presence, near as they liked.

So when the quiet sittings turned to small kisses, stolen without asking, he wasn’t entirely surprised, because they were inevitable. And when the kisses became longer, deeper, more passionate, he didn’t know how to stop. But the kisses were quickly going to escalate into something more, and Raleigh started to realize that without the Drift, a girl like Mako wouldn’t give a boy like him a second glance.

 

 

Raleigh took a swig of beer before he continued. “It’s not that I don’t like her.” He said, quiet and defeated.

“Then what is it?” Tendo quipped.

“It’s just that whenever we do this, I–”

“Wait.” Tendo cut Raleigh off, sitting up in his chair. “‘Whenever we do this’? As in, it’s happened more than once?”

Raleigh signed. “It’s happened... more than a few times, actually.”

 

 

There was the first time they kissed, at her door before bed. They’d come back from sparring in the Kwoon, the delicate yet violent dance flowing out of them in a way no one but the two of them could predict. High off endorphins and the shadow of the drift, he’d walked to her door by accident. She’d laughed, an uncommon sound like the peal of a church bell, then given him a quick peck on the lips. “Good night, Mister Becket,” she’d said, disappearing behind her door, leaving him stunned and euphoric.

Then there was the time he’d found her at the door to Stacker’s old office, tears about to fall from her eyes. She’d wiped them away from her own eyes, never needing any help, but he’d swept her up in his arms all the same. The tears became a hiccup, the hiccups became a wail, and he kissed her eyelids, her forehead, anything to make this strong thing less weak. She’d reached up then, brought his forehead down to hers, and lifted her lips to him for a long and slow kiss. When she pulled away, she was once again steel and restraint.

He couldn’t count the times they’d kissed in front of where Gipsy used to live, hanging off the scaffolding without a thought of safety in the world. Huddled over her tablet, watching news reports, offering opinions on what the PPDC would become as it shifted from military might to research and development. Realizing suddenly how close their mouths were, all else forgotten. All it took some days was her breath near his, the smell of shampoo, the curve of a lip, and they were together.

It was harder every time, too, to break away. Aside from the one time at Stacker’s office, he did his best not to initiate. He failed more often than he’d like. The sweet euphoria of each kiss, the feeling of her tongue in his mouth, his hand at the small of her back only made the weight of his own inadequacy harder to bear. He’d lie awake at night thinking. _She doesn’t deserve a damn quitter. Get off your high horse; don’t hold her back just because you drifted with her a couple times._

 

 

Tendo was in fits, tears in his eyes, trying to laugh quietly and not disturb the other patrons. “Boy, you got it _bad_ , and so does she. What’s the problem, here, Becket?”

“Tendo, she– she’s _Pentecosts’_ daughter, for crying out loud!” Raleigh said, exasperated, looking up at him through a head held by his hands, propped by his elbows on the bar table.

“So?” Tendo said dismissively “He’s dead– not that I’m trying to piss on his grave or anything, here, but it’s true. And even if he wasn’t–”

“No, not like _that_ , man.” Raleigh wasn’t afraid of Pentecost, or whatever ghost of him still wandered the Shatterdome. He’d had fought Pentecost for Mako once before, when trying to get her to be his co-pilot, and he’d readily do it again. “She’s top of the class at Jaeger academy. Smart as a whip. Designed a sword and integrated it into Gipsy. Hell, she _rebuilt_ Gipsy! I don’t even know what the hell that would take, aside from finding a new arm!”

“And?” Tendo took an unimpressed sip of his drink. “You saved the goddamn _world_ , Becket boy! You closed the Breach! By _yourself_! Even before that you were more than a match for her - you’re the only guy aside from Stacker who’s piloted alone! What more could she ask for, man?”

“Someone who went to college, for one.” Raleigh said, dejectedly. “Someone who didn’t have a shot left arm, maybe? Someone a little younger than me?”

Tendo chuckled, and Raleigh shot him a glare. “Raleigh, you’re only 27. Not even 5 years older than she is. Aren’t you being a little hard on yourself, here?”

Raleigh fiddled with the neck of his bottle. He felt his throat tighten like a rock was in it, and when he finally spoke, his voice cracked. “She’s so brave.” He started, “So smart. So kind. She deserves better than me. She deserves someone who didn’t run away, Tendo.” He looked up at his friend through dark, knotted brows.

Tendo’s mouth opened slightly, forming a word, his eyebrows arched in acknowledgement. “Ahh. So that’s what this is about, Becket boy,” he said, quietly, suddenly interested in the bottom of his beer bottle. Raleigh looked away, taking a drink as he did.

They finished their beers in silence, and when Tendo got up to get the bill, Raleigh called after him. “Tendo! It’s on me!”

Tendo turned around “You sure? I’m heading to the wife’s but do you want me to call you a cab, Raleigh?” Tendo had relocated his family to Hong Kong with him after the Anchorage Shatterdome closed; Allison liked Hong Kong enough that they’d bought an apartment in the city and it seemed as if they were going to stay. Tendo was spending more time with his wife, and less with the Shatterdome staff. Transitioning into a new life, just like everyone else.

Raleigh shook his head. “Nah, man. I’m gonna have one more and then head back to the dome.” With that, he waved his hand at the bartender, pointing as his empty bottle for another.

Tendo shouted a goodbye over the din of the pub, and Raleigh sank back in the booth, slouching into his drink.

 

 

  
“Raleigh.” A sweet voice coaxed him back into the world of the living. He blinked, groaned, sat up, feeling his back stiffen. Before him, on the booth’s table, eight empty beer bottles in disarray. _Didn’t I stop at two?_ He asked himself, trying to rub the stinging out of his eyes. Seeing the flash of blue out of the corner of his eyes, he realized, to his embarrassment, who had found him in such a state.

“Mako? Why are you here?” He croaked.

“Tendo called me,” she replied, “Said you might need help getting home.”

_Damn Tendo._ He thought, ruefully. _Always a meddler._ Suddenly, the bar felt all the more seedy, all the more dirty. He had to get her out of there. No place for a lady. “Let me just pay my bill, and let’s grab a cab or something.” He stood, the heady dizziness bringing a wave of nausea over him, and felt for his wallet in his back pocket. His heart jumped and his eyes widened when he didn’t find it. He began patting frantically, scanning the floor below him to see if it’d dropped.

“Don’t worry about it.” Mako said, proudly holding up his wallet “I took care of it before waking you up.” She handed him back his wallet, and started walking towards the door.

Raleigh followed, barely able to walk in a straight line. He stumbled, only staying upright by grabbing onto Mako’s shoulder at the last minute. She turned and smiled at him, “You’re quite a lightweight. I didn’t expect that.”

His stomach lurched, and after battling the nausea, Raleigh replied “I drank a bit too much one time, after Yancey died. Never really got back into it after that. Don’t have the tolerance I did when I was younger.” He paused as they passed through the doors of the bar. “Listen, um.. can we walk for a bit? I really don’t think a car ride is a good idea right now.” He must have looked pathetic, because Mako laughed and obliged.

 

  
Hong Kong was massive, even after the Kaiju destroyed parts of the city, and the Shatterdome was on its outskirts, a bastion on the Pacific. Raleigh tried following Mako, but kept losing her in the crowd, the movement of the people and the neon obscuring and confusing his sight. “Mako,” He called out, lost. “Where are you?”

He felt a silky hand slide against his clammy palms, and weave its fingers through his. He turned to look at who it was, the shock of the sudden connection racing through his heart as his pulse picked up.

Mako walked, weaving through the throngs of people, pulling him along by the hand. Blood pounded in his ears. All the people there, looking at those easily identifiable blue streaks, at the PPDC logo on his sweater, they’d know who they were, surely? In all the interviews after closing the Breach, they’d never mentioned their relationship. Mostly because they didn’t have a definable one to mention, regardless of how the reporters had poked and pried. Suddenly, he was nervous, though Mako didn’t seem to be affected.

She turned back at him, angles of her face illuminated by the colors of Hong Kong. “What did you two talk about?” She asked, innocently. Involuntarily, he clenched his hand, tightening his grip on hers. “Nothing in particular.” He replied, lamely.

She turned forwards again, and they walked in the same peaceful silence they shared in the Jaeger bays. Raleigh looked up at the night sky. You didn’t have a hope of seeing the stars in a city like Hong Kong, but the black abyss seemed to suck up the stifling humidity of the day, leaving a breeze on his face and a calm in his heart. He was beginning to sober.

They’d been walking about an hour and a half, now, and were into a residential part of the city. Hong Kong never truly slept, and as he looked back down at the street, Mako was leading him through a shopping arcade, tabled strewn about in front of an array of shops selling bao and siu mai and egg tarts and fish balls, smells wafting with steam into the night air. Hong Kong was the end of all the old trade routes, and it was never more apparent than in the food that spilled into the streets. A land of great wealth, and cultural richness. In the short time he’d been there, Raleigh had come to love the city, so unlike anything he thought he’d ever experience, growing up in Alaska. Guilt sunk in his chest. Without the Kaiju, he’d have never left Alaska, never known the tastes and smells of this city, or the girl with the blue streaks in her hair leading him through it. He wondered if he deserved such a lush place, or if there was some kid, still playing the snow, who could do so much better than he had?

Mako veered from the middle of the street, pulling Raleigh along and stopping in front of a stall selling colorful drinks with black balls on the bottom.

“Do you want some bubble tea?” Mako asked. “We’ve been walking for a while, now.”

Raleigh swallowed, throat scratching, tongue dry. He could use a drink, but the thought of the pastel colored ones pictured in the shop made him a bit queasy. He also couldn’t figure out what the black spots at the bottoms of each cup were, but in his pride kept his ignorance to himself. “Do they have anything a little less.. milky looking?” he asked tepidly.

Mako smiled “I’ll take care of you, Becket boy.” she raised her eyebrows, waiting for a reaction to her use of Tendo’s pet name for him. He groaned, a smile inching out from the corners of his mouth. “Go find a table. I’ll order.” She let go of his hand, turning towards the shop owner, and started speaking in Mandarin. Raleigh sighed inwardly. _Mandarin. Of course. Another thing she can do that I can’t even begin to imagine._

Raleigh wandered over to the furthest table of the bunch, huddled beneath the eaves of the shop but away from its lights and its noise. He watched Mako from afar, as she chatted with the shopkeep, pointing at the sign above their heads. She let out a small laugh as she handed some bills to him, tucking her hands into her pocket as she moved to the side to wait, eyes bright, body illuminated by the glow of the shop. Mako stood in a bright pool of light, rocking on her heels, looking around until she spotted him. She smiled and waved at him, turning to collect their drinks and walking over.

Mako deposited a plastic cup with a large, thick straw coming out of it in front of Raleigh. The liquid inside was a murky green. He sipped it, tentatively, discovering it was a bitter green tea. Cool as it slid down his throat, the tea quelled what was left of his nausea, and helped abate the headache that was beginning to set in.

“I ordered yours without pearls,” she continued, “I don’t think you’ve tried bubble tea, have you?” She sipped slowly on her drink, milky purple. Raleigh watched, fascinated as the black balls – pearls, she had said – slid up the straw and into her mouth. She paused to chew them.

Instead of returning to her drink Mako began to speak, looking at him with dark eyes. “Why did you pull away, this morning?” She asked darkly.

Raleigh sighed. _Now? We’re doing this now?_ He couldn’t think of the words to respond, so he remained silent.

Mako waited for him to speak. When he didn’t, she huffed a sigh, the wind whistling across the top of her straw. She took another sip of her drink, chewing more pearls at the end. “It’s why you dragged Tendo out, isn’t it?” She said, glowering.

Raleigh was cross. Telling Mako to pick his drunk ass up was one thing, but divulging their conversation was entirely another. “Did _he_ tell you that?” Raleigh asked. “God, I’m gonna kick his ass when I see him next...”

Mako pushed her bangs from her face, revealing the tension around her eyes. “ _No_ , he didn’t tell me that, but you just confirmed it. I thought you _wanted_ this. After the Drift,” she began, with a little less force “.. after the Drift, for me, there can’t be anyone–”

“–me too.” He finished her sentence, voice rough.

“Then what’s the problem?” Mako rebuked. “I saw where you looked! I know you want to–”

“–but that doesn’t mean we damn well _should_!" Raleigh shouted, fed up with being asked what his problem was. His problem was he was all problems. A man with a hole in his chest the shape of another, a man who did nothing but run away, a man who did barely enough and not fast enough to save her father.

Mako’s mouth hung open, twitching at the corners as she tried to form her next sentence. Instead, she suddenly looked beyond his shoulders, to the streets filled with cars at the end of the shopping arcade. “Let’s grab a cab, back.” she said, quietly. “It’s getting late.”

 

 

The cab ride back to the Shatterdome was only 15 minutes, but it felt like 15 hours. Mako stared blankly out the left window, and Raleigh huddled against the right. He looked at the lights as they pooled above him, a stifling blanket of neon over the people of Hong Kong.

They walked back to their quarters in silence, opened their respective doors in silence, closed them in silence. Once inside his room, Raleigh exhaled heavily, running his hands through his hair. He made for the bathroom, stripping down and taking a shower to calm his nerves. He didn’t meant to yell. _I should go apologize,_ he thought, wetting his face with the cascading water.

 

 

With a rock in his chest and nerves running high, Raleigh marched himself across the hallway, raising his hand in a fist to Mako’s door. He took a breath to steady his nerves and knocked.

After a pregnant moment, Mako swung the door of her room inwards, dark eyes holding a composure he’d come to expect from her. Whenever things got tough, she’d push her emotions aside and become a lighthouse, ready for the waves to pound against the coast. Face with her steadiness, Raleigh wavered.

He gulped, adam’s apple bobbing visibly, then pulled her forward, bringing their foreheads together, hands cupping her head gently. He breathed, slowly, and then released the words from the cage of his mind.

“I am a mess of a man, Mako Mori,” he whispered, “and you are a beautifully cut gem. And I can’t drag you down into my mess, you’re too good for it.” His voice shook and he paused, kissing her slowly near her temple. Raleigh felt her hands press to his chest, and before continuing he slid his down to her waist, holding her as close as he’d always wanted to.

“I love you” He sighed into her hair, “So much. But I’m no good, and for you I want nothing but the best. You don’t have to be with me just because we drifted, you understand?” He pulled away, looking into her eyes for some sign of recognition.

What he found was a girl with a quaking jaw and tight lips; eyes fighting tears. “Who are you–” she swallowed, and her voice caught– “Who are you to decide what’s good enough for me?” she finished, her hands forming fists on his chest.

Raleigh took a step back, breaking their embrace, running his hands through his hair in frustration. He exhaled, looking at her. “I’m not smart like you, Mako. I barely finished high school. Was more concerned with backing Yancy up in a fight.”

“So?” she rebutted, shrill. “What does that have to do with anything?”

Raleigh sighed, stating the obvious. “When all this settles down, I don’t have much going for me. I know how to weld, and how to jockey. But you? They’ll want to use jaeger tech in different ways, and you, you’re an engineer so–”

“And that’s it?” Mako was stepping forward to meet him. “ _That’s_ your grand excuse?”

Raleigh leaned against the doorframe, looking away, trying to coax the words out of his mouth. “You’re a real stunner, you know that, Mako? You’re always up for a challenge. So I figured...” he swallowed, the emotions welling in the put of his stomach, “So I thought you might want to have a chance with someone who didn’t spend so much time running away.”

Mako’s moved from anger to sadness in a flash. Her breath was ragged as she closed in on him, capturing him in an embrace.

“You didn’t run away,” Mako breathed into the crook of his neck. “Not when it mattered. Not when it counted. Not with Yancy, and not with me.” she finished, planting a kiss on his collarbone.

“What else do you call what I did?” Raleigh asked into the hair at the top of her head. “Yancy died, and I got away from here as quick as I could. There was other ways to deal. Herc did it. Stacker did it. Who knows when I’ll want to leave again? You’re so good, and I’m just..” He trailed up, pulling her head up by the chin to look into her eyes, stroking her cheek with his hand.

“And you’re j _ust fine._ ” She pleaded, placing her hand over his. “You’re more than fine. You’re all I want. And I know you want me too, so...”

“Mako–” he started, unsure of how to continue, “You could do so much better than an old, broken, runaway coward like me. Raleigh pulled away, and turned to go.

Mako caught his wrist as he turned. “If you’re so ashamed of running away,” she said, voice quivering. “then why are you running away from _me_?” there was a fury in her eyes, and determination in her jaw.

With a jerk of her arm, Raleigh stumbled into her room as Mako pulled him in. She pushed him onto the bed roughly, and he landed in a sitting position, legs hanging off the side. Mako turned to slam the door shut, metal echoing through the hallways at night. She returned to the bed and stood before him. She slowly eased onto the bed on her knees, straddling him, lightly placing her hands on his shoulders as she neared. Raleigh drew a shaky breath, heady with the smell of her soap and her sweat and her. Mako’s hands moved down his arms, running over their scars, as she pulled them around her. He settled his hands on the backs of her thighs, eyes trained on her as she lowered her lips to his, crumpling the fabric of her sweatpants as he moved to grip her tighter.

Breaking the deep, low kiss, she looked him in the eyes and spoke, voice quiet. “I did not know you when your brother was alive.” she paused, breathing, searching his eyes for how to continue, “But no one is mad at you, Raleigh Becket. Stacker was worried, because he knew your pain. Tendo was sad to lose a friend. But no one, no one was mad. These things you mention– being too old, not smart enough– did not matter to me. Because the Raleigh Becket I met on that day in the rain was a man who was all these things, and came back when it mattered most.” Mako cupped his face with her hands, lowering herself onto his lap, pressing closer. “And there is nothing inferior about such a brave man.”

When she kissed him again, what little resolve Raleigh had flew from his mind quickly. His hands were on Mako’s back, and as he leaned back to lie down on the bed he pulled her with him. He ventured a hand under her shirt, running his palms along the smooth skin of her back, pushing the cloth up as he went. He’d come to her room late at night, as she was getting ready for bed. He noted that she wasn’t wearing a bra and decided to push his luck. Raleigh slid his hand to her front, running his thumb along her nipple. She responded in kind, sitting Raleigh up and removing his shirt, breaking their kiss to do so. Her legs were still straddling his. Mako, always direct and precise, wasn’t one to waste time on foreplay, apparently. He chuckled, a glint in the corner of his eyes. “Stacker must have had his hands full with you” he said, pulling her shirt over her head, drinking in the sight of her small, firm breasts. “You’re impatient.”

With that, Raleigh pushed Mako back onto the bed, and climbed on top of her. Her cheeks were flushed, blue and black hair mixing like the ocean at night spread around her face. The most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.

Mako’s eyes moved downwards, sweeping past his abs to focus lower. Raleigh leaned forward to meet her mouth, and as he did a hand came in contact with his chest, sliding down, slipping under the waistband of his boxers. Raleigh groaned as she clasped him, a shudder rolling through his body. He moved his hands to her breasts, thumbs kneading in slow circles, hearing a sharp breath escape Mako’s lips. He moved his hand down, hooking them under the waistband of her panties, tugging down sweatpants and underwear simultaneously, discarding them on the floor beside the bed. Looking down at her, Raleigh traced the hard lines of her body with his eyes, drinking in the purpose-built machine that was Mako Mori, before sliding off the remains of his clothing as well.

_It was always going to be Mako. They both knew it, after that first Drift. It was always her,_  he thought as her hand guided him into her, her firmness and warmth surrounding him. He breathed slowly, trying to keep himself from finishing right then, nuzzled his head into the nook of her neck for control. Placing a light kiss there, he started to move.

With every thrust, her hips lifted from the bed to meet him, deepening the sensation. His hands were unstoppable, moving from her thighs, to her back, to her shoulders, hot and heavy breaths at her neck. Mako stared into the ceiling eyes out of focus, a hand tangled in his hair, another gripping at his waist. He focused on where they joined, thrusting, feeling whole and complete and like nothing he ever faced could not be overcome when he was with her. Raleigh brought their lips together in a hungry, messy kiss as they climaxed.

 

 

In the aftermath, they lay together in her bed, forehead to forehead, just as in the aftermath of closing the Breach. Arms and legs and torsos and hair wove in and out of each other, a pile of skin and sweat and sheets. Just as he surrendered to peaceful sleep, Mako spoke. “Don’t run away from me anymore, okay?”

He pressed his lips to hers, then whispered into the blue hair framing her cheeks. “Okay.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> The walk through Hong Kong might seem like a diversion, but after talking to some friends from HK who saw the movie in North America, they both mentioned that one of the things they loved most about Pacific Rim is that it didn't show HK as some kind of weird 1930s interwar pastiche of exoticism and debauchery. Sure, the Boneslum scenes definitely played into that kind of Orientalism, but a huge amount of the movie took place in the glowing neon skyscrapers that most people from HK identify with. I wanted to write a bit about that, since I spent a huge amount of time in my childhood with people who grew up in HK.
> 
> Also, I'm sorry anon prompt poster-chan, the sex is pretty vanilla. I've never written a sex scene before. I tried?


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